Yahoo Autos 24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day: Porsche Penske Is Team to Beat
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The Porsche Penske team, which won the World Endurance Championship’s season-opening round at Qatar, dominated Test Day in France on Sunday.
Kevin Estre’s quick lap of the day of 3:26.907 was well off the pole speed of 3:22.982 set by the Ferrari factory squad in last year’s debut of the Hypercar class.
In the new LMGT3 class, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R of TF Sport driven by Sebastien Baud topped the time chart in the first appearance of the class at the 24-hour.
Porsche Penske Motorsport has thrown down a gauntlet ahead of the Le Mans 24-hour with a consistent and strong performance during the Test Day.
Kevin Estre quickly took his Porsche 963 to the top of the time sheet during the afternoon session, setting the fastest lap in the No. 6 Porsche 963. Topping off the day for the German-American factory Porsche team, Felipe Nasr was second quickest in the No. 4 Porsche 963, two tenths back, and Michael Christensen was fourth in the No. 5.
The Porsche Penske team, which won the World Endurance Championship’s season-opening round at Qatar, was cautious about its pace relative to the competition, because teams refrain from showing their qualifying speed on the Test Day. But the 196 laps completed while going through race-preparation tests and the pace of all three cars comprise a strong start to the WEC’s fourth round.
Qualifying that begins Wednesday evening will be the first real test at this year’s race, which has 23 Hypercars entered.
“We used the test to check the brakes and try out a few critical things,” says Jonathan Diuguid, the managing director of Porsche Penske Motorsport. “We did everything we could to be as well prepared as possible for the upcoming race week. We tested the tires and implemented several setup variations. We’ve now collected sufficient data for an intensive analysis.”
Third on the time chart in the afternoon was the No. 8 Toyota GT010-Hybrid of Brendon Hartley. Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap in the first session in the No. 7 Toyota before bringing out a red flag when he tried to improve on it.
In perfect conditions, Estre’s lap of 3:26.907 was well off the pole speed of 3:22.982 set by the Ferrari factory squad in last year’s debut of the Hypercar class. The fastest Cadillac V-Series.R was driven by Pipo Derani, whose Action Express Racing entry was 14th. The two entries of last year’s victorious Ferrari 499P team of AF Corse were fifth and 12th with the privateer entry of AF Corse coming eighth.
Other American Connections
Teams with American connections fared well overall.
United Autosports, based in the U.K. and owned by American Zak Brown, was quickest in the LMP2 class with Oliver Jarvis at the wheel of an Oreca-Gibson 07.
In the new LMGT3 class, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R of TF Sport driven by Sebastien Baud topped the time chart in the first appearance of the class at the 24-hour.
